WASHINGTON (AP[8]) — The Obama administration is developing plans to seek up to 1,500 National Guard volunteers to step up the military's counter-drug efforts along the Mexican border, senior administration officials said Monday.

The plan is a stopgap measure being worked out between the Defense Department and the Homeland Security Department, and comes despite Pentagon concerns about committing more troops to the border — a move some officials worry will be seen as militarizing the region.

Well, what the hell else would it be seen as? We're not sending these dudes down there to do landscaping. Pete Guither thinks it will end badly[9]:

Take soldiers trained for war, seek out volunteers out of those who specifically would like to fight a drug war, arm them, and put them on American soil near a potentially volatile border.

The whole thing really is a recipe for disaster, as if the drug war isn’t enough of a disaster already. I wouldn't have thought it possible, but there are still people in our government dreaming up dumb drug war ideas that no one's thought of before.